"Love is All Around" is a song composed by Reg Presley and performed by The Troggs. Purportedly inspired by a television transmission of the Joy Strings Salvation Army band, the song was first released as single in the UK in October 1967, peaking at #5 in the charts. It went on to reach #7 on the Hot 100 in the US on 18 May 1968. This version features a string quartet and a 'tick tock' sound on percussion.

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Covers and parodies

"Love is All Around" has been covered by numerous artists, including R.E.M., with whom the Troggs subsequently recorded their 1992 comeback album Athens Andover. R.E.M.'s cover was a B-side on their 1991 "Radio Song" single, and they also played it during their first appearance at MTV's Unplugged series that same year. Wet Wet Wet's cover, for the soundtrack to the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, was an international hit and spent 15 weeks at number one in the UK Singles Chart. The Troggs' original version was more recently featured in the 1998 film Get Real.

Wet Wet Wet's version of "Love Is All Around" was released on May 9, 1994. It topped the UK singles chart after two weeks and, fueled by its appearance in the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, remained there for fifteen consecutive weeks. All told, the song spent 37 weeks on the Top 75 survey. "We did everybody's head in in the summer of 1994," commented the band's frontman, Marti Pellow, exactly a decade later. This led to some radio stations banning the song. The band themselves eventually took the decision to delete the record from sale.[1] Nevertheless, Pellow said, "I still think it's a brilliant record. Its strength is its sheer simplicity. Any band would give their eye teeth to have a hit record like that. I'm very proud of it."[2]

Reg Presley famously spent some of the proceeds, which he received for composing the song, on crop circle research. He also bought a new home[citation needed].

R.E.M. connection

The employment of film projection onto blank cards in the song's video is reminiscent of R.E.M.'s "Radio Song" video, shot three years earlier. Regarding the Wets' recording of the song, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck said, "People say they got the idea to do it from seeing us play - and I hope so, because it made Reg a million pounds or something. It's a great song. I thought it was a fine version."[3]

"I heard their live version - they did it on TV once - and [Marti Pellow] sang it with the same little melody that I threw in there, which was kind of nice," added Mike Mills. "That thing like uh-uh-uh-urrr at the end. That doesn't exist on the original version."[3]

Slovenian-language adaptation

A Slovenian adaptation of Wet Wet Wet version was also recorded, with the lyrics in Slovenian language, by the Slovenian pop band Čuki, as Vsepovsod ljubezen (Slovenian literally for Love everywhere), soon after the original Wet Wet Wet version was released.

Čuki also released a video for their adaptation of the song, which, just like the Wet Wet Wet video, features the same technique of film projection onto blank cards.

Christmas song

A parody of the song appears as a central theme in the British Christmas/romantic comedy Love Actually (2003), which like Four Weddings and a Funeral was written by Richard Curtis. On the film's DVD commentary track, Curtis says that after the success of the Wet Wet Wet version, he "couldn't think of a funnier way to start the film than by actually making [the British public] listen to the same song again." In the movie, a burned-out rock star character, Billy Mack (played by Bill Nighy), changes the lyrics of his classic "Love Is All Around" to "Christmas Is All Around" and "come on and let it show" to "come on and let it snow" in what he freely admits is a cheap attempt to reach the Christmas number one spot, thus achieving a comeback "at any price." The Christmas version appears periodically throughout the movie, with frequent references made to its being "crap." The song is featured on the film's soundtrack album, which in 2004 reached Billboard's Top 40 and ranked #2 on the soundtrack album chart. It also achieved gold record status in Mexico and Australia.